Communities on the outskirts of Ekurhuleni have widely welcomed the ongoing clean-up campaign aimed at creating safer communities in response to a rise in incidents of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni launched the Love Your Street programme with the clearing of a particularly dangerous spot in KwaThema, Springs, where residents have been complaining for years.
Community leader Nthabiseng Mochesane expressed relief, saying residents have been complaining about the spot, which was meant to be a heritage park but has become a deadly zone.
“So today the Minister and President was here in Guatema, and they were cleaning an area that we had a problem since 2000, 1998, and they put e-fencing around it and there was a passage there. So that passage was not in good standing, because criminals were playing in that passage, it was dirty, and yeah, there was nothing that has been done.
But today that she came to Guatema, she promised Uguti she will make that place clean and conducive, as community members will have to take care of that place,” said Mochesane.
Mochesane said she was convinced that the government was sincere with the initiative and urged fellow residents to take responsibility for the park.
“We were given a timeline that at the end of October, that place is going to look like a sports complex, and the community can have access to it, and we’ll be able to keep it clean also as community members, because at the end of the day, yes, the government is assisting, it is helping us, but what are we doing as community members to keep that place safe? So as community members we’re going to be accountable for that place when it’s clean, to make sure that we maintain it, and anything that should happen there, we’ll be able to take our community accountable,” she said.
The clean-up, along with the rapid repair of street lights, is part of the government’s emergency response to rising incidents of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, which saw the discovery of no fewer than 10 bodies of women in just a few weeks.
Another resident, Elizabeth Mkhwebane, recounted countless violent attacks she had witnessed at the spot over the years.
“I am so happy that the Minister is here cleaning this place. A lot of people have been robbed, raped and killed here. I remember helping a man who was being mugged here, and it wasn’t the first incident,” she said.